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Out of Control Physicians: Too Many Doctors Doing Too Many Things to Too Many Patients
My father is 92 years old, and I am beginning to wonder whether the best thing for his health would be to stay away from doctors. That’s because well intentioned physicians often expose their elderly patients to harmful and unnecessary services out of habit. That’s certainly the message I absorbed after reading a recent issue…
Podcast on Healthcare.gov 3.0
The Managing Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine interviewed me about the piece I wrote, with David Comerford and Eric Johnson, on redesigning the health insurance exchanges. For those of you with long commutes, here is that podcast: Healthcare.gov 3.0
Unsustainable
This picture shows changes in the cost of treating colon cancer, from 1993-2005. It shows unsustainable growth in these expenditures: By unsustainable, however, I do not mean unjustifiable. Patients with colon cancer have much better prognoses in 2005 than 1993, in large part due to advances in chemotherapy. Instead what I mean by unsustainable is…
Obamacare Reduced Racial Disparities in Healthcare Insurance
Research led by Stacey McMorrow (a former student of mine) shows that Obamacare was especially helpful in enabling black and Hispanic people obtain healthcare insurance: Disparities in insurance rates among either groups are declining:
What Is Maddening about Pharmaceutical Prices?
Imagine that you are gasping for breath, literally on the verge of death. Then someone injects you with a medicine and – miracle! – you are perfectly healthy again. Would you pay $300 for that injection? The treatment is epinephrine; your illness was a life-threatening allergy. And that $300 price? That reflects a six-fold increase…
How Much Does Health Insurance Cost?
Want to buy health insurance for your family? Last year, that would have cost you almost $18,000. In 1999, the cost would have been closer to $6,000. Here’s a table showing the steady rise in prices: Surprised at the $18,000 number? That’s because much of that cost is being picked up by your employer. You…